A FAST TRACK TO BIG MAC
Scots star Hawkins craved junk food at dawn in Doha after marathon heroics
THERE’S only so much chicken and rice a man can eat. Occasionally, even the most finelyhoned athlete craves a bit of fast food.
When he discovered the Doha branch of the world’s most famous burger joint was closed at about half five last Sunday morning, Callum Hawkins sought an alternative with all the determination he’d just shown in the marathon at the World Athletics Championships.
While everyone else in the Team GB hotel was asleep, the Scot and his physio were sitting down to a juicy burger.
Still disappointed with his fourth-place finish despite turning in one of the all-time great endurance runs by a British athlete, Hawkins yesterday revealed how in the early hours following his impressive display in the heat of Qatar he commenced a thorough search for a diet-busting reward after a full year of sacrifice and effort.
‘McDonald’s was closed, I Googled it,’ laughed the 27-yearold, back home to help launch the Stirling Scottish Marathon.
‘I didn’t get out until about 5.30am but luckily there was a restaurant in the hotel and I managed to get a burger there.
‘Everyone was in bed except my physio Alastair Gorman. British Athletics had given me a fuelling plan so pretty much for a week all I ate was chicken and rice.
‘I was desperate to get some other food but that was all I ate before the race, lunchtime and evening, too. I was fuelling all day and doing nothing.’
Finishing one place outside the medals for the second World Championships running is hardly what athletes dream of.
Hawkins is no different, albeit he appreciates his performances. In an astonishing show of strength, he came from a long way back to find himself at the front of the field with two kilometres to go, only for the leading trio to speed away for their own private medal chase.
‘I can take a little bit of pride from how I ran,’ he said. ‘But I really want that medal, if I’m being honest. I’ve missed out on a medal — I’d definitely feel unfulfilled if I don’t win a major medal at some point. Ultimately, if I run the hardest I can and don’t get it, there’s nothing much I can do — I’ll have been beaten by better men on the day.
‘I did run tactically well in Doha, so it gives me confidence for (the Olympics in) Tokyo and beyond.
‘Maybe I could have been ten seconds closer when the gap went up to 40 seconds but, in hindsight, I would have done the same. They were throwing in some ridiculous Ks that I don’t think I could have personally handled, which is why I held back.
‘I’ve not looked at it too much as it’s still too raw. But it was the strongest I’ve ever felt in the last 10k — and that’s on the back of suffering a mild strain on my hamstring three weeks out. That maybe resulted in a lack of speed in the end.’
The plan now is to rely on pre-selection for the Olympics and then run only half marathons before it starts in August.
While the marathon was a midnight start in Doha, plans for Tokyo are to start the races at 5.30am. Burger time, if you like.
Conditions are still likely to be sweltering, meaning Hawkins will be back in the ‘garden shed’ he used as preparation for the World Championships, complete with supermarket heaters to replicate blistering temperatures.
‘I hate running on a treadmill and it was about 39 degrees,’ he said of his Qatar preparations.
‘It wasn’t the nicest, there wasn’t a lot of airflow — but I’m probably going to be back in it next year.
‘The last few years we’ve had some bad winters, so my mum and dad redid the garages.
‘It is 4 x 5m so a pretty big shed. It has a treadmill, a bike and weights. I get my headphones on — heavy metal or ‘70s rock.
‘Scotland isn’t the warmest, so I have to do what I can. I was in a heat chamber as well, but I can’t be in there all the time. It’s easier just to put some heaters in the shed and do it there.
‘Have my mum and dad hit me with the electricity bill? They’ve hit me with the shed bill!’
To find out more about the Stirling Scottish Marathon — also including 3k and 5k runs — on Sunday, October 11, 2020 visit www.thestirlingmarathon.co.uk